*Bush's troop withdrawal statement - - - - - - - - watch out.

[RDANGELO]

I suspect that shrub's statement,which gave the implication that a substantial amount of troops will be in Iraq for the duration of his presidency ,was a ploy to get the Democrats to overplay their hand leading up to the congressional elections. As troops are pulled out of Iraq, if things are perceived as out of control, there are two entities which are going to be blamed: Iran and liberals(including the media and Democrats). When the *administration is finished with the supposed negotiation phase of the Iranian nuclear problem, they will no longer have to worry about antagonizing Tehran. This is when they play the Iran card. Everything is Iran's fault, and anyone who questions them is siding with Iran and the terrorists. The key here is for the Democrats and the media to demand proof of any allegations and to remind the people that this is all a consequence of invading Iraq in the first place. Finally, the people may just have BS fatigue and see right through it all.

[TayTay]

1. You assume that Bsh and the Rethugs have some credibility

to do this. They are tanking in the polls and the most common meme is that you can't believe anything these people say. They don't have the credibility or popular support to do this.

It takes two to play this kind of high stakes game and you have to have something to put into play. At 33-37% approval in the polls, this Admin doesn't have anything to ante up with.

[RDANGELO]

3. You may be right.

They might try it anyways because they have nothing else ,and they are so delusional they don't realize they have no credibility.

[babylonsister]

2. The blivet will never hand over control until he is

kicked out on his ass, I'm thinking. If that's what it takes... Who will be pulling these troops out?

[high density]

4. Yeah but this is the lamest thing yet...

Breath #1: "No timetables for withdrawal."

Breath #2: "We're going to be there through 2008 at least."

Once again Bush is asking everybody to have an open mind about this, while at the same time he's obviously decided a "timetable" of his own where he's going to mess with Iraq long enough to pass the problem onto whoever gets sworn in three years from now.